Madison, Wisconsin - Yongna Xing, assistant professor of oncology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, is a recipient of the Shaw Scientist designation, an award that comes with $200,000 in unrestricted research support.

Xing, who is a member of the UW Carbone Cancer Center, is a biochemist and structural biologist. Her research centers on a protein important for the function of cells. Knowledge of the protein's structure and how it works in the cell promises insight into how cancer resists treatment. The work could, in the future, lead to alternative therapies for cancer treatment.

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation announced the award on May 19.

Shaw Scientists are selected by a panel of prominent researchers from around the country. Begun in 1982 with a $4.3 million bequest from Dorothy Shaw, widow of James Shaw, a prominent Milwaukee attorney, the program has distributed nearly $11 million to 60 researchers to support cutting-edge research.

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation is a family of more than one thousand individual charitable funds, each created to serve specific charitable causes. Begun in 1915, it is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the world.